Jonny Evans says referee's penalty call against Northern Ireland was 'worse' than infamous Thierry Henry handball: 'I said to him you can't be 100 per cent'

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Jonny Evans believes the decision to award Switzerland a controversial penalty in their World Cup play-off win over Northern Ireland was even worse than Thierry Henry's infamous handball for France.

Evans's brother Corry was harshly penalised for handling Xherdan Shaqiri's shot at Windsor Park, allowing Switzerland to take a potentially decision advantage in the two-legged tie ahead of Sunday's return in Basle.

West Brom defender Jonny claimed the decision of Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan was a greater injustice than Henry's handball that helped France to beat the Republic of Ireland in a playoff in 2009.

Jonny Evans labelled Northern Ireland's penalty call as worse than the Thierry Henry decision

Henry's handball was not seen by the referee and France went on to beat Republic of Ireland 

'It was actually a worse decision because the ref has made a call that was not there,' said Evans. 'It's different if he didn't see it. He's claimed he seen something that didn't happen which is the hardest part to take about it.

'It is probably the decision for a referee to guess. You can't really be 100 per cent sure and I said that to him straight away. But it was too late, he has given the decision and it's difficult to take.

'As players we can sort of tell if it's a penalty – there was maybe only a couple of yards between Corry and Shaqiri. If it hits someone's hand it takes a different kind of deflection. It stops the ball dead. To hit his back we could tell and I'm sure everyone else could tell it was a bad call.

'It's difficult because you don't know what way referees are going to react in moments in like that. You could hear a few things that the lads were saying, but there's quite a few of us on yellow cards so we had to watch ourselves.

'It's strange because I had a feeling the referee knew that he had made a wrong decision and I'm sure he was getting fed information throughout the game and he could tell with everybody else's reaction that maybe he had made the wrong call.

'I haven't said anything to Corry. What do you say in a moment like that? He didn't do anything wrong. He's made a great block from the shot.'

Corry Evans was adjudged to have used his hand in a block and Switzerland scored the penalty